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Topic: turkeys, Just a bit of info (Read 1835 times)

I got this e-mail today thought I would share it being that you were talking about turkeys and all. Heritage Turkeysâ€ Make a Comeback

Thank you for making a difference in the lives of small family farms and in the protection of our precious genetic diversity. One result of your support is that the American Bronze turkey has moved from critical to rare on the American Livestock Breed Conservancyâ€™s (ALBC) Conservation Priority List. It is your purchases that have made this possible and we look forward to partnering with you as we collaborate to help save many other rare breeds of animals, as well.

Just this past week the ALBC announced that:

â€œHeritage turkeysâ€ made a significant step forward as consumers once again made them the centerpiece of Thanksgiving, the quintessential American holidayâ€¦ In eight short years these colorful birds are making a comeback that is nothing short of amazing. As recently as 1997, â€œheritage turkeysâ€ were in danger for extinctionâ€¦ By the winter of 2003, populations had increased by 220%. Since 2002 the market for â€œheritage turkeysâ€ has approximately doubled annually.

To see first hand the latest generation of heritage turkeys being raised on the Good Shepherd Turkey Ranch log onto our homepage and visit our turkey webcam. At night, they are led into the barn where they roost on wooden planks about a foot off the ground. In the morning, the barn is opened and they all scurry out, some flying and roosting in 20â€“30 foot tall trees a hundred yards away! Frank Reese, the owner of the ranch and the foremost authority on heritage turkeys then spends a large part of his morning gathering up the ones that have flown too far away and reuniting them with the rest of the flock. Then for the rest of the day they are allowed to roam all over the pasture and eat and gobble and run and fly and talk about whatever it is that turkeys talk about while basking in the sun.